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Sunday, February 24, 2013

2013 trade package #8: Play at the Plate nails the tag again

So I got home from work on Friday and noticed a nice sized card box sticking out of my mailbox. I didn't think I was expecting anything like that and only sort of figured things out when I recognized the name of Brian of Play at the Plate. While I was awaiting a certain item from him (which he promises will arrive soon, and I can't wait to show off!) I certainly wasn't thinking he'd be sending me a stuffed 300-count box full of cards! I was extremely happy with all the loot I got to go through, and here are just a few highlights:

A couple unopened packs of 1992 Stadium Club football! It's always fun busting packs, no matter what era they're from, and Stadium Club usually features outstanding photography.

Out of the 30 cards, these are the three players whose names I recognized, which makes sense since they were all big-time stars in their day. No surprise that I didn't know the rest since I wasn't really following football at that age (I would have been nine at the time). As expected, though, these look great.

One thing I liked about the design that year (I believe baseball did the same thing) was to feature that player's Topps RC on the back. I decided to show this one off since that very card was Riesenberg's RC.

So anyway, that was lots of fun. The bulk of the package, of course, featured lots and lots of DEE-troit Tigers, and some very good ones at that:

A healthy dose of Cabreras, just about all of which should be new for me. My favorite is the Heritage Chrome, which I highlighted by putting it right down the middle.

A bunch of stuff of this blog's former and current namesakes. The die-cut in the upper-right is fantastic, and I'm also a big fan of the Topps Gold below. But of course, any Grandersons and Verlanders are good Grandersons and Verlanders!

Here's some more outstanding inserts, including more Heritage Chrome. The Scherzer Refractor is stupidly awesome and easily one of my favorites of Max, but the rest of the players are all excellent as well; no scrubs here!

Here's a few other miscellaneous Tigers past and present: Phillips was in some ways a poor man's Rickey Henderson, and I enjoyed watching him on the Tigers. Sparky, of course, was Sparky. And the rest are nice pickups of some hopeful future Tigers, especially Castellanos. Thanks to trades like this one I'm putting together a decent PC of the future 3B/OF/whatever gets him into the lineup.

The last of the Tigers highlights includes these former stars of the 80s and 90s: Cecil, Morris, Tettleton, Tram and Whitaker. Brian actually sent a nice pile of '90 Leafs and I'll have to see if it amounts to a team set, which would be pretty cool since I don't think I've ever picked ANY of those up.

Besides a token Wolverine football card (a nice Tai Streets), Brian tossed in this beauty for one of my Michigan Baseball player collections:

It's J.J. Putz's 2013 Topps Emerald parallel. I especially appreciated this one since it was so out of the blue! It's my 3rd version of J.J.'s 2013 Topps cards, putting me halfway towards the set already.

Brian, thanks once again for a fantastic trade--it's been a while, but you certainly made it worth it by sending an impressive stack of goodies. Rest assured that when the other thing shows up, I'll be showing that off as well and signing your praises once again. You readers should gather up your Rangers and play at the plate cards and send them to Dallas care of Brian, plus the few of you who aren't should go check out his blog right now!

In honor of a great Tigers package from a catcher-loving blogger, here's something we can both appreciate: